April, 1921 
31 
An interesting group of early 
American Dutch pottery shows 
preserve jars on the ends, pickle 
jar in the center. These are glazed 
deep red with brown spots. The 
butter crocks are light yellow 
with brown markings. Above 
hangs an early picture of New 
York with tiles from old New 
York houses made in that city 
before 1700 
of course used in the homes of the cities, towns 
and villages but not nearly to the same extent 
as in the farm homes. For two hundred and 
forty years the potters with their small pot¬ 
teries scattered over the country supplied this 
household need, making lead glazed earthen¬ 
ware household pots. After 1735 they com¬ 
menced to make salt glazed stoneware as well, 
which required larger plant machinery and 
capital to produce their earthenware. 
Both earthenware and salt glazed stoneware 
were manufactured after the fashion of the 
Dutch, English and German pottery of the 17th 
and of the 18th Century. Hence our early pot- 
ten' has so large a range and is so varied; for 
it combines all the knowledge, skill and crafts¬ 
manship of the potters who came here with the 
early settlers from these 
three countries, while Amer¬ 
ican potters added thereto 
designs and decorations dis¬ 
tinctively American as time 
went on. 
All too few are the pieces 
of American-made pottery 
dating from Colonial times 
in our museums and private 
collections, — examples of 
Pennsylvania earthenware; 
earthenware originating in 
Peabody and South Dan¬ 
vers, Massachusetts; earth- 
Except the pitcher to the right, which is of Parian 
ware, white pitted on a blue ground, this group is of 
Bennington, Vt., flint enamel ware. The Bennington 
lion is famous 
envvare mantel tiles from New Amsterdam 
(New York), among the pieces from known 
localities of original manufacture. American 
potter}' made from 1800 to 1865 is the sort the 
collector is most likely to come across. After 
the Civil War, tinware, chinaware and glass¬ 
ware displaced earthenware household utensils, 
and the days of the small individual potters 
were over (excepting of course the revival of in¬ 
terest in ceramic handicraft in recent years). 
The early earthenware pottery found in the 
farm homes of the Hudson River counties and 
Long Island, New \ork, also in the adjacent 
New Jersey counties and Connecticut localities 
along the Sound, is of great beauty and strong¬ 
ly exhibits the Dutch influence. This earthen¬ 
ware is glorious in its coloring of orange red 
and olive, splashed with 
dark brown markings; also 
single colors of yellow and 
black and mottled green 
were combined with other 
colors. No more beautiful 
earthenware was ever made 
in America than this early 
pottery with its Dutch 
shapes and the orange of 
the flag of New Amsterdam 
in its glaze. It originated 
in New \ r ork State, then 
afterwards it was made in 
(Continued on page 74) 
A Rockingham ware pitcher showing 
the huntsman design is to the left; 
the jar in the center is early Massa¬ 
chusetts pottery, made at South 
Danvers around Revolutionary times. 
Another Rockingham to the right 
{Below) The two Rockingham pitch¬ 
ers show a stag and a Columbia de¬ 
sign. This pottery takes its name 
from the English Rockingham and 
was first made here in Jersey City in 
the year 1845 
Jugs and mugs of red and black glaze show the range of the early Amer¬ 
ican Dutch pottery, characteristically Dutch in shape. This ware origi¬ 
nated in New York State and afterward was made in New Jersey and 
Connecticut. All the illustrations are from the author’s collection 
